Companionship
by fantasyfestus
Summary: Annabeth Chase doesn't sleep at night, and neither does Leo Valdez. Friendship happens.


_"The loneliest moment in someone's life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly."  
_ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

* * *

Annabeth shifted, trying to find a position that better utilized the dim light being emitted from the torch propped against the wall. As she moved the paper she was observing, it made a scratching sound against the floor that rang out in the silence of the night. She cringed and held her breath, counting to ten and listening for any sounds other than the rhythmic breathing of her sleeping siblings that might indicate that she had brought unwanted attention upon herself.

When there was no such indication, she gently breathed out and squinted at the paper. It was barely visible. She wanted to leave the cabin and find a better spot to work, but she couldn't risk an encounter with the harpies that patrolled camp.

She nudged the paper slightly, careful to avoid making any noise, and tried to find a better angle. After many unsuccessful minutes, she decided that she would attempt to sneak to the beach. The full moon provided plenty of light and she could use a flashlight without waking anyone. Fear of harpies would not keep her from getting work done.

Her mind made, she stood up and gathered her things, pausing every time she made a sound to make sure no one was disturbed. She crept out of the cabin and, scurrying from shadow to shadow, made her way to the beach.

The sand shone with moonlight, providing more than adequate visibility for her reading. The gentle sound of water was calming, and yet it brought an uncomfortable sensation of longing. She wanted to be sitting with Percy. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine him. His voice, his eyes, his smile, his hair. The way he talked, the way he laughed, the way he drooled in his sleep. She loved everything about him. She imagined him next to her. She imagined what he might say.

"Annabeth?"

Her eyes flew open. She got to her feet and spun around.

She was met with a surprised looking Leo Valdez.

"What are you doing here, Leo?"

"I, uh, forgot some… I was… earlier I had come down to, uh, you know, test something, in the water… and I forgot it down here on the beach, so I came down to get it." Annabeth couldn't understand why he was stumbling over his words so much. He was usually able to speak quickly and smoothly without any trouble. She figure he was tired.

"You woke up in the middle of the night to get equipment?" she asked.

"No… I haven't slept," Leo answered, almost sheepishly.

"Why?"

He shrugged. "There's so much work to be done, no time to sleep."

Annabeth didn't believe him, but she didn't press the subject.

"What are you doing up?" Leo hesitantly asked.

"I was just-" Annabeth started to gesture to the blueprints, but decided against it. She sighed. "I can't sleep. I thought I might as well get something done while I'm awake. The sooner this ship is done, the sooner we find Percy."

Leo nodded. "Well, it's kinda dangerous to be out here with all these harpies lurking around."

"It was too dark in my cabin."

"If you want, you could come to the bunker. There's plenty of light and you might get more work done with the ship right in front of you. And it's not as lonely."

"Thanks Leo, but I would rather be alone."

"Yeah… if you ever change your mind, I'll probably be down there anyway." He walked further down the beach until Annabeth could no longer see him and returned with a contraption in his hands. "See you around," he said as he walked by her.

Annabeth watched him leave and then turned back to her blueprints. She found that she was unable to focus and eventually returned to her cabin with no work completed.

* * *

The next night, Annabeth was once again lying in bed awake. She knew from experience that trying to sleep would get her nowhere, and the idea of wasting time made her uncomfortable. She wanted to work on her blueprints, but the light in her cabin was far from sufficient. She considered sneaking to the beach again, but suddenly the idea was vastly unappealing.

Annabeth realized that she didn't want to be alone, despite what she had told Leo the night before. She had spent so long feeling lonely with Percy missing, but she had refused any company because she was never in any mood to socialize. To her, it seemed that spending time socializing was wasting time that could be used to find Percy.

But now, she had a much better option. She could work on finding Percy, and she could do it with someone around so she wouldn't feel lonely. It was exactly what she needed.

She snuck out of her cabin and towards Bunker 9. When she arrived at the limestone cliff where it was hidden she found the keypad and punched in the code. The new security system made it a lot easier for people without fire abilities to enter. Earlier they had to use torches and there had been numerous fires in the forest as a result.

Leo was inside, fiddling with a contraption Annabeth was unfamiliar with.

"What's that?" she asked, squinting at it, trying to figure out what it could possibly be for.

Leo jumped and nearly dropped his gadget. "Huh? Oh Annabeth… you came."

"Yeah… I figured being alone wasn't very good for me," she admitted. "What's that?"

"Oh, um, this is nothing," Leo mumbled, trying to hide it behind his back. Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him, and he looked at her sheepishly. "Night is usually when I test out my crazier ideas. The ones I'm not ready to share yet."

Annabeth nodded. "I won't ask about them then."

"Thanks," Leo smiled gratefully. "Anyway, you can hang out wherever you'd like. If you want quiet I have these headphones that-"

"I don't mind noise."

"Cool, because those headphones probably wouldn't work."

Annabeth gave him a look before selecting a mostly empty bench to spread her papers on. Within seconds she was fully engrossed in them. The sounds of tapping and whirring and clinking were steady in the background.

She was not sure how many hours had passed when she was finally satisfied with the design she had been working on. She leaned back and rubbed her eyes, looking around to see where Leo was. She could not find him.

"Leo," she called tentatively.

"On the ship!" he called back. "One sec!"

A few minutes later, he emerged with a grin.

"Did your crazy idea work?"

"Beautifully. You get any work done?"

"Yeah, a lot actually," Annabeth said, handing him the finished blueprint.

Leo glanced at it before putting it to the side. "Glad we were both productive."

Annabeth nodded and yawned.

"Whoa, tired?" Leo asked.

"I guess," she mumbled. "I haven't felt sleepy in a long time."

"There's a bed over there," Leo said, pointing to a makeshift cot in the corner. "That's where I usually sleep. But I'm not really tired so you can use it."

"You sure?" Annabeth asked. The idea of sleeping in the bunker was tempting. She didn't want to sneak back to her cabin.

"Yeah, go ahead."

"Thanks." She turned and headed towards the bed.

"Hey, Annabeth?" She looked back at Leo, and was surprised to see the thoughtful expression he wore. "Thanks for coming. Even though we didn't talk or anything, it was nice to have someone around. It gets kinda lonely otherwise."

Annabeth smiled. "Good night, Leo."

That night, she finally slept peacefully.

In the morning, she found Leo sprawled across a work table. She felt guilty for displacing him from his bed. She grabbed the blanket she had used and threw it across him as a sign of her thanks before creeping out of the bunker to avoid waking him.

* * *

Sometime during the day it had occurred to Annabeth that she could avoid the risk of harpies each night if she went to the bunker before curfew. By now she was certain that she would not be getting sleep in her own cabin.

She arrived at the bunker an hour before curfew with bedding items she had taken from her cabin. She dragged the empty work table Leo had slept on to a corner of the room and set up a bed similar to the one she had used the night prior.

Leo walked in as she was adjusting the blanket and pillow.

"You're here early," he commented, walking over to see what she was doing. He grinned when he saw the bed. "I see you're planning to become a permanent resident of Bunker 9?"

"This way you won't have to sleep on a hard work table again."

"I'm honored that you care about the well-being of my spine," Leo joked.

"Yeah, well I kind of need you to fly a ship for me. No one else can operate _that_ ," she gestured to the boat being constructed.

"I'll teach you the basics," Leo shrugged, "in case something happens to me, we need someone to fly her."

"Nothing will happen." Annabeth tried to sound encouraging but the idea of something going wrong suddenly weighed heavily on her. As leader of the quest, the safety of the crew was her responsibility, and she worried she would mess up.

* * *

Leo was sitting across the table from Annabeth working on something that was so complicated it made her head spin. Whenever she looked up from her blueprints she would spend about 10 minutes watching Leo in complete awe.

Her curiosity finally got the better of her and she pushed her work to the side.

"Okay, I know I said I wouldn't ask you what you were doing, but what on Olympus is that?"

Leo was completely caught off guard as he looked up. "It's… uh, well… I was thinking of hooking a Wii up to the ship to act as a control."

"A Wii?"

"Yeah, I mean the receptors work perfectly, they react to movement but they aren't triggered too easily. I would just have to make a few modifications and wire it up to the ship."

Annabeth pointed at the tangle of wires and equipment in front of Leo. "That doesn't look like a Wii."

"I took it apart to get a better idea of how it works. I don't need the actual Wii so I stripped off the showy exterior, but the insides need to be redesigned to match the Argo's system so I can use the remote to operate the ship. The remote is the most important part."

The idea was pretty brilliant, but also pretty strange. "So our ship is gonna be operated by a Wii controller?"

"I mean if that's cool with you?"

Annabeth wasn't sure how to respond for a moment. "I guess, if it works?"

* * *

When Annabeth realized that Leo's rhythmic finger tapping was Morse code, she was furious with herself for not noticing sooner. She was about to comment on it and display her own knowledge, when she remembered that she was very much out of practice. She was absolutely not willing to mess up and look stupid.

She tested herself by trying to work out what Leo was tapping.

 _You… mom… I… love… you ….mom…_

I love you mom.

Annabeth studied Leo's face carefully while he was distracted by his work and noticed that his features looked tired. His eyes were hiding some kind of sadness.

She knew his mother had died, but she suddenly found herself wondering how it had happened and how it had affected Leo. He had ended up going to a reformatory school, so it could not have been good. She decided to ask Piper.

She arrived late to breakfast the next day and found Piper sitting at the Aphrodite table with her siblings. She sat next to her and grabbed her muffin.

"Are you seriously gonna keep taking my food?" Piper asked with mock annoyance.

"Yup," Annabeth smiled, handing back her breakfast. "I had to ask you something."

She looked worried as she asked "What?" drawing the word out.

"It's about Leo." Piper's features relaxed. "Can you tell me what happened with his mom?"

"She died," Piper said, "in a fire."

Annabeth suddenly felt something click. "Does Leo think he had something to do with it?"

Piper took a sudden interest in her muffin, and her voice was rough when she spoke again. "He doesn't talk about it much. I'm his best friend but he won't even completely open up to me." She paused. "It was Gaea, but the way things happened… Leo's been blaming himself for years, and I didn't even know."

"It's not your fault, you-,"

"I don't know, Annabeth." Piper was staring blankly ahead. "I don't think it's good for him to keep everything bottled up. If I learned anything on my quest, it's that you have to have faith in your friends. You have to trust them enough to tell them everything. I was stupid. Leo's also stupid."

They sat in silence for a while. Annabeth knew now that she wouldn't let Leo know she understood Morse. Being able to understand the things he tapped might be the only way to understand what he was feeling, and she wasn't about to expose that connection.

* * *

Leo tapped messages to his mom whenever he missed her. Over the next few days, Annabeth figured out subtle ways to distract Leo whenever he went into one of his sad moods.

She was also surprised to realize that her depressive moods over Percy had significantly reduced since she had shifted to the bunker. Companionship, no matter how silent, seemed to be a highly effective cure.

Annabeth was thinking over this successful arrangement as she spread her blueprints across her usual table and sat down to work. Leo was sitting across from her tampering with some engine related equipment. They sat in comfortable silence.

Annabeth was so deeply absorbed in her work that she didn't realize that Leo had started tapping. It was faster and harder than she had ever seen.

"Hey, Leo, this design…" Annabeth faltered when she realized that he wasn't responding. His eyes were glazed over and watery and he was staring ahead. "Leo?" Annabeth tried again, but she once again got no response.

She maneuvered around the table and grabbed Leo by his shoulders, shaking him gently and saying his name again. He looked towards her, dazed.

"Sorry…" he murmured. "I must have-"

"Were you thinking about your mom?" Annabeth asked, even though she knew the answer. She sat next to Leo on his side of the bench. She hadn't planned on actually talking to him about what happened, but she was starting to realize that Piper was right. Keeping everything bottled up would not help.

Leo didn't answer.

"Leo, I know that you think it was your fault, but-"

"It was." Annabeth was surprised by how deep his voice sounded. "The fire came from me. I started it."

"It was Gaea," Annabeth said firmly.

Leo shook his head, looking like he was about to cry. "You weren't there."

"Leo, Gaea has been messing with our lives for years. She knew we were destined to be the heroes to stop her. She knew exactly how things would happen and she did everything in her power to stop it."

"She did it to stop _me_. She didn't want _me_ to grow up and go on this quest. That's why she killed her. Because of me."

"No, you can't blame yourself for that," Annabeth insisted.

"It's not that I blame myself. I… I came to terms with that. But I can't stop thinking about how everything eventually comes back to me. If I weren't destined to go on this quest, none of that would have happened."

"The Fates are tricky. Whatever they planned for you is not your fault."

"The Fates," Leo said slowly. "She said that she would have killed me if the Fates weren't stopping her. So instead she killed my mom."

"Leo-"

"You can't understand how it feels. Your dad is alive."

"I know, I can't imagine how it feels. But I know for sure that none of it was your fault. We're all pawns in this huge and constant mythological war, and it sucks."

Annabeth suddenly felt tension building in her own chest. They were all pawns. And Percy… what role did his disappearance play?

"We'll find your boyfriend," Leo said gently. Annabeth wasn't sure how he knew what she was thinking, but the weak assurance helped to dispel some of the tension. She nodded. "Our lives are so screwed up," Leo muttered.

Annabeth made a weak sound of agreement.

They didn't work for the rest of the night. They sat next to each other in complete silence until Annabeth couldn't keep her eyes open and finally went to sleep. She only spoke to tell Leo to do the same.

He listened to her.

* * *

They didn't mention that night again, but their relationship changed. They had shown each other their vulnerable sides and now had a much deeper understanding of one another.

The extent of their friendship was unknown to the rest of the camp. During the day their interactions were limited to discussions on the ship. No one was aware of the bond they had developed through their late night sessions.

Annabeth realized that Leo was a very different person at night, when he finally took off his mask. His goofy and immature nature vanished and she could see him for the damaged individual he was. His eyes grew sad and his grin disappeared. He was quieter.

She wondered how he could transform from sad and thoughtful to cheerful and funny every day.

Annabeth also came to realize how brilliant Leo really was. He was always working on some new and crazy idea that he usually managed to make work, and the ingenuity behind each one always surprised her.

Spending her nights at Bunker 9 turned out to be a great decision. For some reason she couldn't understand, the atmosphere there made her work better, and she always ended up tired. She was sleeping consistently and feeling much better.

She also noticed that she was thinking about Percy a lot less, which led her to realize that whenever she started to think about him, Leo would somehow distract her.

One night, after again being distracted as soon as she thought of Percy, she decided to finally bring it up.

"How do you do that?" she demanded, ignoring Leo's question about painting the ship neon pink.

"What, come up with amazing ideas?" Leo asked, looking confused.

"No, you always distract be right when I start to think about Percy. How can you tell?"

"Oh, that… you start to play with your hair," he answered, very matter-of-factly.

Annabeth suddenly became conscious of the hair wrapped around her finger. "Observant," she said thoughtfully, feeling genuinely impressed.

"And you?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow questioningly. "How do you know when I start thinking about my mom?"

"You tap."

Leo glanced at his fingers, as if for the first time. "Observant."

* * *

Annabeth woke up with an awful feeling in her neck and a blueprint somehow stuck to her face. This was not a part of her normal morning routine.

She groaned as she lifted her head off the table she had accidentally fallen asleep on, rubbing her eyes violently despite knowing it was bad for her. Her head ached and her mouth felt dry. She blinked, waiting for her vision to focus. When it did, she noticed Leo also slumped against the table, still in deep sleep with a wrench dangling precariously in his hand.

She hit him in the arm to wake him up. The wrench fell from his hand and hit the floor, clanging loudly and making her wince. His head shot up and he looked around with wild and tired eyes, making a sound that she couldn't even begin to comprehend.

"What happened?" he asked blankly, once he had realized that they were not under any type of attack. "Why do I feel like I was stabbed in the neck? Repeatedly?"

"We fell asleep," Annabeth gestured vaguely, "in a very bad position."

She tried to remember some of the details from the night before.

"It's your fault," she said finally.

"Huh?"

"If you hadn't made me lecture you about having a bowling alley on the ship, I wouldn't have been so tired."

"You could have just agreed," Leo mumbled, disappearing under the table to retrieve his wrench.

"Don't make me explain myself again, Valdez," Annabeth hissed, pushing herself up from the bench. "And get over here and go back to sleep, in a proper position this time."

"Yes ma'am." There was the sound of a loud thud followed by a weak "Ow."

Annabeth laughed despite her generally miserable condition. Even if only for a moment, having neck pain and a slightly delirious Leo as her biggest problem was a welcome relief.

* * *

Annabeth was on the floor trying to pick up all of the papers she had dropped and trying to hold back tears of total frustration when Leo walked into the bunker.

"Annabeth, are you okay?" His concern was genuine but Annabeth didn't want him to see her having a breakdown.

It was stupid to cry over papers, but having everything scattered all over the place was like a punch in the stomach. An odd and symbolic reminder that it took seconds for things to fall apart and forever to fix them, and right now everything in her life was crumbling.

"It's nothing, Leo. I just dropped my stuff."

He knelt next to her and helped pick things up, not mentioning her tear-brimmed eyes even though he clearly noticed. Annabeth tried to keep her head down. When they had gathered everything they stood up.

"I wasn't upset about the papers," Annabeth said weakly, feeling the need to clarify that she was not the type to cry over stupid things.

"Are you kidding? Of course you weren't. You're like the most badass person I've ever met. By the way, in case you haven't noticed, you're absolutely terrifying."

"What?"

"Seriously," Leo continued, "I mean when you marched over at the Grand Canyon, I thought you were going to kill us all on the spot.

Annabeth laughed. "And now? Are you still terrified?"

"Absolutely. Except I think we've graduated from killing to just a really hard punch in the face."

"I'd call that progress."

* * *

As Leo was teaching Annabeth how to work the ship, she found herself deeply admiring his work. The engineering was brilliant and creative, each component unique and useful, every part working together in perfect unison.

"So yeah, those are the basics. Enough for you to handle her if anything were to happen to me." He paused and seemed to consider something before adding, "I think."

"You know you seem like a total idiot but you're actually very smart," Annabeth commented. "And I don't hand out compliments like that often."

Leo grinned. "Thank you for recognizing my genius!"

As they were walking off the ship, Annabeth said, "I feel a lot better about this whole quest knowing that we have you on our team. With a ship like this-"

"Spanking hot war machine," Leo corrected.

"Okay," Annabeth conceded, mostly because she was too sleepy to resist. "With a spanking hot war machine like this, our chances seem a lot better. So thank you."

"Thank me the day we fly this ship into camp with your boyfriend on board."

* * *

The Argo II was due to take off in an hour and the camp was in a frenzy. The ship had been taken out of the bunker and parked in a clearing for takeoff. The Demeter and Hermes cabins were currently stocking it with supplies. The Hephaestus cabin was running final checks on the ship with Leo running around like a madman.

Annabeth got up from her position in a circle of Athena kids analyzing maps and weather reports and started walking towards Bunker 9. Seeing her siblings marking up papers with bright red ink had reminded her that she had forgotten her favorite pen there.

When she arrived at the bunker, she found Leo rummaging through a cardboard box.

"What are you looking for?" she asked, spotting her pen on her worktable and moving to pick it up.

"Oliver," Leo said offhandedly.

"Oliver?"

"Screwdriver."

Annabeth glanced around the bunker and found it sitting on the worktable behind Leo. "There."

Leo looked up and then at the direction she was pointing. "There you are Ollie!" he ran over and snatched it up. "Mad finding skills, Annie."

"Don't call me Annie."

Leo grinned. "Got it."

"We should go."

"Yeah," Leo agreed, following Annabeth to the door. He stopped suddenly and turned to look around, his expression becoming serious. "This place treated us well, during all those long and sleepless nights."

Annabeth nodded. "Not to mention the way it turned up right when we needed it," she marveled. "I mean, what are the odds of stumbling across a place with ready designs for the perfect ship for our quest? But then again, there are no odds, are there? No coincidence. Everything is meant to happen. The Fates orchestrate everything."

"Deep," Leo remarked. "But I am gonna miss this place."

"You sound like you're not expecting to see it again."

"It's a possibility."

"We'll be back," Annabeth assured.

* * *

The bunker was empty when Annabeth walked in. It seemed so much bigger without the Argo, without the sound of metal tools twisting and banging. She walked to her usual bench and sat down. It was dark. She wasn't sure where the light switch was, and she didn't care.

As she sat on the bench in the huge and quiet bunker her heart broke. She imagined all of the times she had sat across from Leo while he tinkered with some strange contraption, all of the times he wasn't in front of her but she knew he was present by the sound of his hammer or drill.

She remembered the nights he was cheerful and the nights he was not. She remembered what she had told him one night. _We're all pawns in this huge and constant mythological war._

Maybe if she had paid more attention she could have figured it out. Maybe…

"Annabeth?" a familiar voice called out hesitantly.

"In here," she answered. She heard feet scuffling and the lights suddenly flickered on. Percy was standing near the door, looking at her with concern. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," he admitted. "I was worried."

Annabeth understood. Since returning from Tartarus they had been inseparable. They constantly worried for each other.

"What is this place?" Percy asked, looking around. His concern had been replaced by confusion.

Annabeth realized that Percy had never been to the bunker. The place had been discovered while he was missing, and after returning no one had thought to give him a tour of everything he missed.

"It's…" Annabeth struggled to find the right words. It was a workshop, a Hephaestus hiding place. That was the simple answer. But the nights she had spent there had given the place so much meaning to her. Simply stating that it was a place for building could not possibly cover it.

"Annabeth?" Percy was looking at her with concern once again. He must have thought she was slipping back into Tartarus.

She pointed to the wide empty space in the bunker. "That's where we built the Argo. This place is old, a command center that belonged to the Hephaestus cabin. Used during war times like the civil war with the Romans. Leo found it. I used to come here during the night. I could never sleep, I was always worried about finding you. Working made me feel better. Leo invited me here, said it would be easier to work in a well-lit place with company. He was right."

Percy sat next to her and pulled her into a hug. She let herself lean against him.

"He was so much more complicated than he ever let on," she mused. "He'd been through so much but he hid everything, never shared his feelings. He used to tap, in Morse code. Just the same message to his mom over and over again. I love you. And he was brilliant, so brilliant. That ship is… unlike anything I have ever seen."

She fell silent and when she spoke again her voice was barely more than a whisper.

"I told him we'd be back. I remember it so clearly now. When we left the bunker before starting the quest. I told him we'd be back. And I was wrong." She closed her eyes. "I don't think we could have done it without him. Any of it."

She opened her eyes and tapped out a message on the table, slowly, steadily, repeatedly.

 _Thank you._


End file.
